Iram Haq's "I'm Yours" wins Brussels Film fest screenplay award

 The 10-day Brussels Film festival wrapped on Saturday, with a gala screening of Hossein Amini's "The Two Faces of January". The evening was also given over to handing out awards to the films in competition. The Brussels Film Festival focuses entirely on European cinema, with films coming from places as far apart as Greece and Iceland.

The winner of the 2014 screenplay award went to "I am Yours" (Jeg er din), written and directed by Norwegian actress Iram Haq, the tale of a 27 year-old single mother's search for love in Norway. This is Haq's first film as a director, although she has been working as an actress for several year. "I am Yours" was Norway's candidate for the foreign-language Oscar this year.

The full list of winners.

► OF HORSES AND MEN (Iceland) won The GOLDEN IRIS AWARD.
► THE WHITE IRIS AWARD goes to THE REUNION (Sweden)
► JURY AWARD : ACES (Spain)
CONGRATULATIONS to Benedikt Erlingsson, Anna Odell & Alfonso Zarauza !
And also:
► FEDEX CINEPHILE AWARD: THE REUNION by ANNA ODELL
► CINEUROPA AWARD : VIS-A-VIS by NEVIO MARASOVIC
► BEST SCREENPLAY AWARD : I’M YOURS by IRAM HAQ
► AUDIENCE AWARD : THE DOUBLE by RICHARD AYOADE
► PRIME AWARD : FAREWELL TO THE MOON by DICK TUINDER
► BETV AWARD : THE DARK VALLEY by ANDREAS PROCHASKA
► RTBF AWARD : THE REUNION by ANNA ODELL

It is worth noting the three prizes that went to Anna Odell's "The Reunion".

On a personal note, other films worth watching were "Jack Strong" by Wladyslaw Pasikowski (an effective and emotional thriller based on the true story of a Polish general that worked as an agent for the CIA) and "La chambre bleue" by Mathieu Amalric.

Happy, Happy picks up script award in Brussels

The 9th Brussels Film Festival wrapped up last night in Brussels. The festival focuses on European cinema, paying particular attention to first and second films.

The best screenplay award offered by the ASA (Francophone Association of Belgian Screenwriters and the SABAM) went to

BEST SCREENPLAY AWARD

2.000€ offered by the ASA (Francophone Association of Belgian Screenwriters) and SABAM (Belgian Association of Authors, Composers and Publishers).

Jury : Frédéric Castadot, Annie Carels, Julie Bertrand, Jean-Baptiste Delaunoy

HAPPY HAPPY (Sykt lykkelig)

by Anne Sewitsky (Norway)

The Award was received by Ragnhild Tronvoll, screenwriter of the film.

O'Horten picks up 4 Norwegian movie awards

Norway just held its annual awards ceremony, on the closing night of the Kosmorama Film festival in Trondheim. The big winner of the night was Bent Hamer's comedy "O'Horten", which picked up awards as Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, Best Music (by Kaada) and Best New Creator.

The festival opened on February 28 with the Norwegian premiere of the political thriller "Night of the Wolf" by Swedish action specialist Kjell Sundvall. Other highlights included a masterclass by US filmmaker John Sayles and Peter Greenaway’s presentation of his latest film "Nightwatching".

Rome festival: learning from documentaries

Big, glamorous and busy: I just got back from the Rome festival, where I didn't manage to see half the films I wanted. But two documentaries gave me some food for thought. The first was "The Gates", by Antonio Ferrera. This fly-on-the-wall documentary follows artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude's two attempts to line Central Park with saffron-coloured patches. The film-makers followed them to the various production and administration meetings. So the film was not written or even planned in terms of a final structure. "600 hours of rushes, 2 years of editing into 98 minutes," as Ferrera explained in the bar. So the challenge was to make a coherent story out of a vast amount of material afterwards. "You never stop writing your film," he said. "When you pitch it, you're writing. Editing is re-writing. When you dub it or do subtitles, you're still writing. Basically, you only really stop writing when you start the next one."

The other revelation was "Natural Born Star", a brilliant documentary about the former Norwegian heartthrob Fred Robsahm (photo), who basically fell into superstardom in Italian B movies in the seventies by accident. I won't go into the details of his amazing yet tragic life, but it's one of the most moving stories I've seen in ages. What was interesting was the way the director Even G. Benestad and scriptwriter August B. Hanssen used the mountain of vintage material to tell the story, which itself has the feel of a B movie throughout the parts that deal with the seventies (including a great period soundtrack by Kaada - pronounced "coda"). Inevitably, when the reality kicks in, the effect is all the more moving. For a work of non-fiction, it is also remarkably true to the three-act structure. I strongly recommend this one. The film has its own site called Natural Born Star.net, but you'll find more info on the Rome Film fest page here.

Check the soundtrack on


Incidentally, the Rome festival doesn't have a script award. So the only reference to a screenplay came from director Jason Reitman, who insisted on bringing the scriptwriter Diablo Cody on stage with him to pick up an award for "Juno" as "it is her story". Spoken like a gentleman!

"Reprise" wins main and writing award at Lecce

Norway's "Reprise", directed by Joachim Trier and co-written with Eskil Vogt, picked up the main "Golden Olive" award in a tie with Christian Wagner's "Warchild" at Lecce's European Film Festival and went on to pick up the main award for the screenplay. The jury cited, "its ability to tell an extraordinary love story in an original way, and its complex tale rich in metaphors about life and creation". Mentioning the screenplay, it hailed, "the harmonious way it brings together classic narrative elements and elements with fragmented tones".

Vogt is an award-winning short film writer and director who has worked in France and was noted for "The Embrace/Une étreinte" and "Les étrangers/Foreigners".

More about the Lecce European festival.